September KM - 70 alterations in Revelation Climax Book

by dozy 120 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  dozy

  I can't find a thread on this subject yet - if there is one , please delete this one.

  The September Kingdom Ministry has a 4 page insert detailing the 70 alterations in the Revelation Climax book which is due to be studied at the Book study shortly. I'll provide scans if anyone is interested.

  I will leave it up to more experienced analysts to examine the reasons for specific changes , but just a few brief observations for now:

  P32 box - "they were completely exonerated" changed to "charges against them were dropped" - interesting change of terminology for the 1918 Watchtower Eight

  P185 (28) "thousands died" in Nazi concentration camps replaced by "two thousand". Number imprisoned changed from 10,000 to 12,000. I know the various figures for this period given by the WTS have been well documented - maybe this is the definitive figure.

  P277 (18) "Remaining anointed ones" changed to "if any anointed ones still survive" - change of thought?

  References to Mt 25 with reference to the seperating work have all been deleted in various places and WT references have been updated.

  Puzzled as to whether there has been a reprint of this book with the 70 alterations or whether all JWs will have to change their own copies , even the new ones. I'm just off to buy some more tippex......
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  slimboyfat

  Shouldn't you be on the ministry dozy?

  Interesting stuff. You would think embarrassment would have inhibited them from using this book again, especially considering some major revisions were obviously in order.

  Whether they actually produce a revised version of the book, they will surely come out with a new paperback version (have not seen any paperback Revelation books yet) in line with recent cost-cutting measures.

  Reminds me of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four where it talks about the revised authoritative dictionary.

  Slim
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  dozy

  Shouldn't you be on the ministry dozy?

  I'm booking my time for this session , Slim - double time for a Saturday , don't you know!

  I am surprised that they haven't brought out a new book - there are so many "changes of thought" in the 20 years since the book was published that have to be edited out. The book is very 1980's and reflects the concerns of that era. For example ,there is even a reference to bolshevik persecution of religions in the Soviet Union that has had to be deleted now that the cold war has ended. And a reference (P94 (18) ) about "the almost certain possibility" of a nuclear war being started in the next years has been changed to "some scientists speak of the possibility of an accidental nuclear war".

  A fascinating change is on Page 185 regarding Spain in 1970. The original book claims that the ending of persecution was because of a change of government , implying that Jehovah was in some way behind this move. The alteration states that rather than a change of government , the ban was lifted as a result of the governments change of policy towards all non-Catholic religions. I do hope that this ushers in a period of more candour for the GB & a bit more honesty in quoting secular sources.
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  slimboyfat

  Here is a relevant passage from the Bottings' book you may find interesting:

  Similar prosesses of deflection of attention of membership away from crises are used in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Interestingly, Winston Smith works in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where books and periodicals are rewritten and reissued again and again: 'Even the written instructions which Winston received, and which he invariably got rid of as soon as he had dealt with them, never stated or implied than an act of forgery was to be committed: always the reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or misquotations which it was necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy' (41). In this manner, mistaken prophecies uttered by Big Brother are eradicated from memory and the illusion of infallibility is maintained (213-16).

  The notion of books being rewritten and reissued - and even recalled - is not new to Jehovah's Witnesses. There have, of course, been several editions of some books, each of which contain insignificant changes; but the 1981 edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures included some fairly major modifications in translation without much fanfare. Certain motifs and drawings are repeated again and again in the literature - especially in The Watchtower and Awake! magazines - sometimes with tiny alterations reflecting shifts in doctrine. A beardless Christ or Adam depicted in a drawing in the literature of the sixties may well appear in the literature of the seventies complete with beard but without specific reference to the tacit shift in official stance. An illustration of a Witness family in which one boy had longish hair, first printed in The Watchtower of 1 March 1981, was reprinted in the Awake! of 8 March 1982 - minus the hair: in the interim, the society had changed its stance on looking different from the world. As we have seen, certain doctrinal primers are repititions of each other, but often almost identical books - some of them fairly long - are released by the society under different titles, without mention that the books are virtually identical (compare, for example, Your Word is a Lamp to My Foot [1967] and Organization for Kingdom-Preaching and Disciple-Making [1972]). As Orwell wrote of Oceania, 'every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted' (1984, 156).

  Slim
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  yesidid

  I'm booking my time for this session , Slim - double time for a Saturday , don't you know!

  You're really cute Dozy.
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  mineralogist

  Is there any chance to get the complete list of changes for those of us who don't get the km anymore?
  
  thanks in advance
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  dozy

  You're really cute Dozy.

  Awwwwwwww. , Maria....... Schuchks!

  I will try and scan the insert today ( failing this , tomorrow ) - bear with me on this one , folks....
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  Crumpet

  How very very interesting! I suppose they think that by being up front about tha changes there will be less Hoo Haa amongst the flocks. I'd be keen to see the scans!
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  blondie

  P32 box - "they were completely exonerated" changed to "charges against them were dropped" - interesting change of terminology for the 1918 Watchtower Eight

  This is not a doctrinal change. I can see that it was probably forced by the good research by many ex-JWs on this subject.

  I am not a lawyer but "exonerated" means they were proven not to be guilty, "dropped" has the meaning that the charges could have been true but the government chose not to pursue further prosecution.

  There is another post around here.

  Blondie
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  purplesofa

  yeah.........a complete list would be nice to have.

  Let me see if I can word this correctly............

  I found many times when studying a question arise as to what they are teaching...........and then It is wrong to question it..........so years later we find there are 70 alterations to a book we have studied many times.

  end of comment.

  purps